Flashback - What It Is

In terms of screenplay format, a Flashback is a technique used to reveal backstory.

It is a scene (or a series of scenes) that takes place at an earlier time (a week, a month, x years ago) than the time when the main story happens.

It usually gets triggered by a picture, a scent, a word, that brings the character - in a flash - back to a particular moment in the past.

The screenwriter Waldo Salt, who won an Academy Award for Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home, saw a flashback as a "flashpresent," because the visual image we're seeing is what the character is thinking and feeling at that present moment, whether a memory, or fantasy, or event; a flashpresent being anything that illuminates a character's point of view.

Flashback in Action - An Example

This video extract from The Bourne Identity, screenplay written by Tony Gilroy and W. Blake Herron, shows an example of an effective flashback.

Flashback - 7 Key Components

There are 7 elements which need to be present to make a flashback effective:

It MUST be NECESSARY.

In other words, a flashback should not compensate a problem in your screenplay, a lack of imagination or writing skills.

It has a powerful TRIGGER.

In this case, the confrontation between Jason Bourne and his boss Conklin and the evocation of Wombosi boat trigger the memory back of why Jason Bourne did not fulfill his assignment

There is a SEAMLESS TRANSITION between the present and the past and again back to the present.

In our example, and although the flashbacks are short, we have no problem following the story and knowing when we are in the present and when we are in the past.

The process is smooth.

We start with Jason Bourne, go to his past, get back to Jason Bourne. The focus remains on the character having the flashback.

It MOVES the STORY FORWARD and/or REVEALS IMPORTANT INFORMATION about the character.

In our example, it explains why Jason Bourne was found floating half dead on the ocean and it "illuminates his point of view" (like Waldo Salt would say) and revals his human side when he declares that he does not want to be an assassin anymore.

It is usually SHORT (unless the story is a long flashback, like in The Reader).

It shows each event in a CHRONOLOGICAL manner.

In our example, we first see the boat, then the gun on Wombosi's head, then the view of the child, then Jason Bourne being shot).

Imagine how complicated it would be for the audience if we were first to start with Bourne being shot, then the view of the child, then the gun, etc.

Another way is illustrated in the screenplay "The Bourne Ultimatum", written by Tony Gilroy and Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi. In this case Flashback is treated as a montage.

INT. NIGHT. PHARMACY BATHROOM -- MOSCOW BOURNE finishing up -- splashes water on his face -- he seems a man on a mission. He looks up -- A MIRROR. His face... FLASHBACK -- JUMBLED STREAKY IMAGES: "415" written on a building. DISEMBODIED VOICE (HIRSCH) Welcome to the program... POV Bourne walks down a corridor (corridor #1). INT. NIGHT PHARMACY -- MOSCOW

Whatascript: Talking about montage, you see sometimes in movies the memory of the hero being triggered and the next scene shows you an old movie. How does this get done in terms of screenplay format?

Formatman: This is an example from the screenplay "The Game", written by John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris.

He looks out his window, watching the street roll past... FLASHBACK/GRAINY HOME MOVIES -- 1960'S -- DAY SILENT, HOME MOVIE-ISH IMAGES as before: YOUNG NICHOLAS, 10, peers out from a LIMOUSINE, watching his neighborhood pass... PERIOD FASHIONS, PERIOD CARS and HOUSES... BACK TO SCENE, IN THE BENTLEY

Whatascript: How about a series of flashbacks? one after the other. How do you write that in terms of screenplay format?

Formatman: There are again different ways to do that.

This is an example from the screenplay "Anna Karenina", written by Tom Stoppard.

INT. ANNA'S BOUDOIR, KARENIN HOUSE, SAME TIME--DAY It is early in the day. Anna's maid, Annushka, has been dressing Anna. Annushka is young, loyal, modest. Anna is at her dressing-table-bureau, which is host to at least two photographs of a small boy (Serozha) and a child's unframed drawing of "Maman." As she starts reading the letter, Anna's eyes frown. FLASH BACK, VERY SHORT, ALMOST SUBLIMINAL-- INT. (LINEN CLOSET)--DAY Oblonsky and Mlle. Roland in a passionate embrace, vertical, clothed. BACK TO SCENE Anna turns the page, reads on, concerned. FLASH BACK-- SHORT, A BEAT OR TWO-- INT. LINEN CLOSET, OBLONSKY HOUSE--DAY Still kissing, Oblonsky hoists up her skirts. BACK TO SCENE Anna turns to the second page.

And this an example from the Game again, when flashback is used as series of insert

CHRISTINE Check your accounts. That night in your office, when we were there... FLASHBACK -- NICHOLAS' OFFICE -- THAT NIGHT Christine runs her finger down Nicholas' TELEPHONE. She looks to see Nicholas is preoccupied, lifts the receiver... Reads the PHONE NUMBER underneath. She turns, looks down... There's a NUMBER written on the PHONE JACK on the wall: #C4. CHRISTINE I got the number to your private line and modem. I gave C.R.S. remote access to your computer... FLASHBACK -- VARIOUS INSERTS NICHOLAS' C.R.S. TESTING: Nicholas' hand scribbles his SIGNATURE... fills out a FINANCIAL QUESTIONNAIRE. A TAPE RECORDER'S REEL SPINS... a PENCIL blackens TEST BLOCKS... CHRISTINE You already gave them everything else. Handwriting, voice samples, psych-info. They used it all to figure out your passwords. FLASHBACK: ON A MONITOR, combinations of LETTERS and NUMBERS SCROLL BY, multiplying, too quickly for the eye to see... CHRISTINE From there, they only had to keep you distracted while they broke into the network and transferred your holdings to dummy accounts. FLASHBACK: FIGURES appear on a COMPUTER SCREEN; HIGH NUMBERS flying down to 000,000,000's. More NUMBERS, falling. CHRISTINE Remember Jim Feingold, the guy who signed you up? He did five years for hacking Citibank in eighty-four... FLASHBACK: PAN UP from deft fingers at a keyboard to JIM FEINGOLD, lit by cold COMPUTER SCREEN GLOW. BACK TO SCENE IN BENTLEY

Whatascript:How to end a flashback scene in terms of screenplay format?

Formatman: As we saw in above examples there are different ways to do that:

in Vanilla Skye "BACK TO PRESENT" is used at the end of the a master scene heading (i.e. INT. PRISON PSYCHIATRIC UNIT - NIGHT - BACK TO PRESENT)

In the first example, the screenwriter David Hare mentions the year when the events take place, going back and forth between the present time of the story and the past.

INT. MICHAEL'S APARTMENT. BERLIN. DAY. 1995. A modern apartment, all cool and glass. MICHAEL BERG is preparing breakfast, laying the table for two... Michael goes to the window and looks out. A yellow U-Bahn goes by. INT. TRAM. DAY. December 1958. MICHAEL, now 15, is sitting on a tram. He is in a well-cut suit he's inherited, ill-fitting, with two- tone shoes and tangled mop of hair. Sweat breaks out all over his face. A WOMAN is staring at him. He's plainly feeling ill. INT. MICHAEL'S APARTMENT. DAY 1995. MICHAEL stands at the window, looking out. INT. TRAM. DAY 1958. Impulsively MICHAEL gets up, rings the bell and gets off at the next stop. INT. MICHAEL'S APARTMENT. DAY 1995. MICHAEL closes the window. EXT. BANHOFSTRASSE. DAY SUPER: "Neustadt West Germany 1958" It has come on to rain. MICHAEL is walking along the street, looking more and more sickly.

Formatman: On the last picture you can see the use of SUPER (abbreviation for superimpose) with the date of 1958.

This screenplay format is used to show the time we flash back to when the movie is a long flashback.

At the end of the flashback one returns to PRESENT DAY (or in this case 1995).

Whatascript: What is the second example of screenplay format when there is a flashback without mentioning it?

Formatman: It is when the screenwriter David Hare mentions that the main character has thoughts while having dinner.

INT. DINING ROOM. BERG APARTMENT. NIGHT The family is half-way through their meal. MICHAEL is sitting watching them eat, thinking about his lovemaking with HANNA.

In this case, we have actually a rare case of a flashback within a flashback. And what is even more rare, both flashbacks work.